


Crumbling Exterior

by Cairn256



Category: Childhood’s End, Hello Charlotte (Video Games), hello charlotte
Genre: Mentions of suicide please be careful, OCD, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 07:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21388621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cairn256/pseuds/Cairn256
Summary: Q84 comforts Charles and ends up spilling her feelings to him.
Relationships: Charles/Q84 but platonic, None?
Kudos: 5





	Crumbling Exterior

Her hands were resting atop of my own, a gentle and caring embrace that was foreign to me. Her touch was feather-light, almost not there at all. She knew it was the best she could do at the time.   
Her warmth comforted me. I felt less alone for the first time in my life.   
She didn’t know how to comfort very well, I knew that as much, but it made me feel a bit better nonetheless. 

I looked up at her for the first time since the tears began to flow and my eyes met hers. They were filled with care and compassion, something you rarely see from her. It made my throat tighten with strain as I tried to fight my tears again.   
I wasn’t used to affection or comfort. I had learned to deal with it by my lonesome back in the True Realm. 

She was trying to ask me for something, but I wasn’t sure what, until she muttered the question. I nodded. 

She leaned forward and hugged me close, another rarity. I felt myself holding her close to me. I felt out of myself, imaginary. I couldn’t ground myself, otherwise I wouldn’t have exactly have been holding her so close to me in the first place. I was repulsed by touch, yet I craved it so badly that my body worked separately than my brain at that moment. 

I felt her shudder and shake from within our embrace. It was then that I realized that she was crying and mumbling something. Her voice was distant, I couldn’t quite catch what she was saying, but she kept repeating whatever it was. 

I forget what had even caused this episode this time. Was it just another panic attack? Was it a hallucination of Vincent’s death? Was it a nightmare? Was it another suicide attempt? Perhaps it was the last example. I always did forget my immortality when I was miserable. 

She was my only solace in this hell hole. My only actual connection. My only...friend? I don’t know what I would call her. But she was the last of the defective Charlottes, the only one to actually have a friendly relationship with me. 

I questioned myself as to where this is actually going, as I felt stunted, static. I tried to force myself to snap back into reality, but it didn’t work. Charlotte was looking up at me now. Her mouth was moving, yet I couldn’t hear. My vision started to go to black. I don’t remember if I said anything or not. 

I woke up in a bed. My bed...in my room. Charlotte was next to me, asleep. I blinked a few times and looked around.   
I assumed that she had taken me to the House. 

It was then that I realized that her and I were holding hands. It was more than she had done earlier, as our fingers were intertwined, something I had never had the drive to do with another person before. It felt nice, but my brain rejected this immediately. I felt my thoughts creeping and tried to chase them away. I only realized I was hitting myself when Charlotte woke up and pinned my arms to the bed. She told me that she wouldn’t let me hurt myself anymore. She said she would help me. She said these things through tears, so many tears. She whimpered as she stumbled on her words, unable to stop herself from ranting to me how she cared about me. 

There was no facade here. Her heart had been shattered and pieced so meticulously back together by me. I held the thread woven into her heart, she said. I was the one who gave her the will to live how she pleased, the fun way, she said. I couldn’t leave her, she said.   
She wanted me to live. It was a line I had heard before from Scarlett’s incarnation of Charlotte. That Charlotte was dead now. It was only the two of us. 

She wept for everything that she had endured. It was a vivisection of her heart, and she willingly poured it out for me, to let me know that she loved me.   
I didn’t realize I was crying too until she had calmed down enough to tell me I was. 

We sat there for a while. Until both of us had calmed our hearts and stilled our breathing, until both of us were worn out by it all. She was unashamed. She seemed happier once she laid beside me, an arm placed loosely around my waist in an attempt to hug me as she drifted into her peaceful sleep once again. 

Though that whole ordeal took a lot out of us both, I’m sure we benefited from it. At least I know now, through her normally harsh words, she had always cared for me, and she knows that I have always cared for her. 

After all, it was my fault that she was brought back in the first place.   
It was her choice to stay, and I appreciated that more and more with each passing day.


End file.
